The Radical Protest: Part One

Introduction:

As we shall discuss in Part One
of this letter, Avraham , our
father, offered a radical
protest against the cruel policy
of the society in his region.
This protest took place before
Hashem told him to journey to
the Land of Zion. In Part Two of
this letter, we shall discuss
the relevance of this protest to
Avraham’s loving mission in the
Land of Zion.

Dear Friends,

Within the Torah, we find the
stories about Noah, who began a
new human society after the
great flood. After listing the
descendants of Noah (who
eventually developed into
seventy nations), the Torah
begins to tell us the story of
the “Tower of Babel”:

"The whole earth was of one
language and of common purpose.
And it came to pass, when they
migrated from the east they
found a valley in the land of
Shinar and settled there. They
said to one another, ‘Come, let
us make bricks and bake them in
the fire.’ And the brick served
them as stone, and the bitumen
served them as mortar. Then they
said, ‘Come, let us build
ourselves a city, and a tower
with its top in the heavens; let
us make a name for ourselves,
lest we become scattered
throughout the earth.’ ”
(Genesis 11:1-4)

In the above passage, we are
introduced to a seemingly
unified and peaceful society
which desired to build a city
and a very tall tower. The goal
of its people was to make a name
for themselves; moreover, they
hoped that the new city with the
very tall tower would serve as a
unifying symbol which would
prevent them from being
“scattered throughout the
earth.” In the following
passage, we find the reaction of
Hashem, the Compassionate and
Life-Giving One, to the plan of
this unified society, and what
Hashem said to his court of
celestial angels:

“Hashem descended to see the
city and the tower that the
children of Adam were building.
And Hashem said, ‘Behold, they
are one people with one language
for all, and this is the first
thing they undertake! And now,
should it not be withheld from
them all they propose to do?
Come, let us descend and confuse
their language, so that they
should not understand one
another’s language.’ And Hashem
dispersed them from there over
the face of the whole earth; and
they stopped building the city.
This is why it was called Babel
(confusion), because it was
there that Hashem confused the
language of the whole earth, and
from there Hashem scattered them
over the face of the whole
earth. ” (Genesis 11:5-9)

The above verses indicate that
the goal of this unified society
was not in harmony with the
Divine purpose, but these verses
do not reveal a specific reason.
This is unlike the story of the
corrupt and evil society in the
era of Noah which was destroyed
by the flood. For example,
regarding this earlier era, the
written text of the Torah states
that the earth had become
“corrupt” and that it was
“filled with robbery” (Genesis
6:11-13). The written text of
the Torah does not openly
reveal, however, the specific
sin of those who were building
the tower. As our sages teach:
“The sin of the generation of
the flood is explicitly stated
in Scripture, whereas the sin of
the generation of the dispersion
is not explicitly stated in
Scripture” (Genesis Rabbah
38:6). How, then, are we to
understand the nature of their
sin?

According to our tradition,
there are various allusions in
the text which reveal the sin of
those who were building the
tower. The following allusion is
one example: The people who
wanted to build the tower said,
“Let us make a name for
ourselves” (11:4). This
statement indicates that their
goal was self-glorification.
They saw their community as an
end in itself, rather than as a
means to serve the compassionate
and life-giving purpose of
Hashem. Their social sin is
discussed in the following
excerpt from the commentary of
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch:

“If the community declares : ‘We
want to demonstrate the powers
that are inherent in the
community; we want to join
forces so that we may establish
ourselves’, if the
community does not call out in
the Name of Hashem, but says,
‘Let us make a name for
ourselves’; if the individual is
called upon to be a servant of
the community, but not serve
Hashem; if the community
presents itself as an end rather
than as a means to an end – then
humankind’s whole moral future
is lost.” (Commentary to Genesis
11:4)

A prime example of the threat to
humankind’s moral future by the
builders of the tower, and the
story of Abraham’s protest
against this threat, is recorded
in the following excerpt from an
ancient midrashic work, “Pirkei
D’Rabbi Eliezer” (Chapter 24):

…………………….

Rabbi Pinchas said: There
were no stones there wherewith
to build the city and the tower.
What did they do? They baked
bricks...Those who took up the
bricks went up on the eastern
side, and those who descended
went down on the western side.
If a man fell and died, they
paid no heed to him, but if a
brick fell they sat down and
wept, saying, “Woe is us! When
will another one come in its
stead?’ ”

And Abraham, son of Terach,
passed by, and saw them building
the city. He cursed them in the
name of his God, and he said,
“Master of All, subdue and
divide their tongue, for I have
seen violence and strife in the
city.” (Abraham's statement is
also found in Psalm 55:10)

…………………..

Rabbi David Luria, a leading
19th century sage and kabbalist,
wrote a commentary on Pirkei
D’Rabbi Eliezer. In his
commentary on Abraham’s
statement, “I have seen violence
and strife in the city,” he
explains that Abraham was
referring to their cruel and
cold indifference to the lives
that were lost in the building
of the tower. Abraham therefore
opposed their unified endeavor,
and he cursed their endeavor by
asking the Master of All to
break their unity through
causing them to speak different
languages.

What was the reaction of the
builders of the tower to
Abraham’s protest against their
cruelty? Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer
describes their reaction through
a parable about a stone:

They rejected his words, like
a stone cast upon the ground.
But is it not a fact that every
choice and good stone is only
used as a cornerstone of a
building? It is therefore
written, "The stone which the
builders despised has become the
cornerstone" (Psalm 118:22).

Based on the teachings of our
Torah about Avraham, I would
like to suggest the following
interpretation of the above
parable: Avraham was known for
his emphasis on loving-kindness,
and his acts of loving-kindness
are described in the Written
Torah – the text of the Torah,
and in the Oral Torah – the
explanations which reveal the
various levels of meaning within
the text of the Torah. (With the
help of Hashem, we will discuss
examples of his loving-kindness
in Part Two of this letter.)
Avraham’s emphasis on
loving-kindness caused him to
protest against the cruelty of
the people that were building
the tower, but they rejected his
words, “like a stone cast upon
the ground.” As the above
parable from Pirkei D’Rabbi
Eliezer reveals, this is not the
end of the story, for the
“stone” that they rejected –
Avraham’s emphasis on
loving-kindness – is actually
the “cornerstone” of the world.
In this spirit, it is written:

“The world is built through
loving-kindness” (Psalm 89:3).

Shalom,

Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen – (See
below)

Related Teachings:

1. Our forefathers and
foremothers were willing to take
a separate path in a world which
had lost its way. In this
spirit, the Book of Genesis
(14:13) refers to our forefather
Avraham as the “Ivri” –
the Hebrew. This word can also
mean, “The one who is on the
other side”; thus, the Midrash
offers the following teaching in
the name of Rabbi Yehudah
regarding why Avraham was called
the Ivri:

“The entire world was on one
side, but he was on the other
side.” (Genesis Rabbah 42:8)

2. The commentator, Radak, says
that the story of the Tower of
Babel took place when Avraham
was forty-five years old. (The
commentary of Radak on Genesis
11:1 – cited in Sha’arei
Aharon)

3. The Talmud teaches in the
name of Rabbi Noson that the
generation of the dispersion
built the tower for the purpose
of idolatry, as they said, “Let
us make a name for ourselves”
(Genesis 11:4).

4. The people who built the
Tower of Babel had the benefit
of unity, but their unity served
an arrogant, self-worshiping
purpose which led to their cruel
and cold indifference to the
deaths of some of their
builders. Hashem therefore
weakened their unity by causing
them to speak different
languages.

At the dawn of the messianic
age, however, all the nations
will achieve unity through
serving the altruistic purpose
which is associated with the
Name of Hashem – the most sacred
Divine Name that expresses the
compassionate and life-giving
Divine attributes. As Hashem
proclaimed; “For then I will
radically cause the nations to
speak a pure language, so that
they will all proclaim the Name
of Hashem and serve Him with a
united resolve.” (Zephaniah
3:19)